Amaze Closes
Amaze, the project set up to support churches in the practicalities of employing youth workers, has closed. Responsible for best practice manuals and support for trainee youth workers, Amaze became part of Youthscape four years ago. Youthscape will still offer training on line-management and fundraising.
Open Doors secret santa
Instead of comedy Christmas socks, a C-list celebrity calendar or festive toy reindeer, why not give your Secret Santa a gift that really means something this Christmas? Give just £4 to Open Doors, and, on behalf of your Secret Santa, you can help buy a week’s worth of essential food and supplies for a Christian in Iraq or Syria who has lost nearly everything due to war, terror and instability. Visit opendoorsyouth.org/ secretsanta for more information.
Christian rapper and youth worker picks up mobo award
Christian rapper Faith Child has been named Best Gospel Act at the MOBO awards. The hip-hop star, who also works with excluded children in South London, picked up his award at a ceremony in London following in the footsteps of Guvna B and Victizzle. His win comes just weeks after he was made a deacon in his church. He told Premier Youthwork: ‘It’s been an amazing month for me. Ordained as a deacon, won this MOBO. In the past five weeks I’ve been up for five awards. There’s so much happening. I just thank God for that.’ Faith Child, who has previously opened shows for international star Tinie Tempah, describes his music as ‘God-given’. Aimed at young people, he says he wants to positively inspire and empower teenagers.
Dyslexia-friendly books of the bible
The Bible Society marked Dyslexia Awareness Week with the launch of a special edition of two books of the Bible. Mark’s Gospel and Psalms have both been produced in dyslexiafriendly versions after discovering that the Bible is particularly difficult for dyslexia sufferers because it has thin paper, often showing words on both sides, and is usually printed in small font. Bill Allen from the Bible Society told Premier Youthwork: ‘If you’re dyslexic you’re very unlikely to want to [read the Bible to children], which means we’ve lost that resource for the Church of the Bible stories that most kids are brought up on, being read to them because the parent can’t read it very well. Not only is it affecting their individual spiritual life, it’s affecting the next generation at the same time.’ One in ten people in Briton has dyslexia, which can affect reading and writing.
